The Independent View: NAN Largest Convention in the History of the Organization

I attended the 15th Annual National Convention of Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN). It took place, April 3-6 in New York City, at the Sheraton Hotel.

It was the largest attended NAN annual national convention and included delegates from over sixty NAN chapters across the United States.

There was a forum on Gun Control, Gun Violence: Addressing the Real Reform, and both the family of Hadiyah Pendleton, the 15-year-old who was fatally shot a week after performing with her high school band at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, and the family of Trayvon Martin were in attendance. NAN delegates were asked to put pressure on their Senators to vote on stronger Gun legislation that could come up for debate in the Senate this week.

Several officials from the Obama Administration attended in Special Plenary Presentations: Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Regina M. Benjamin, Surgeon General of the United States, Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Others spoke at ticketed events: Leading members of Congress and activists such as Martin Luther King, III, National Urban League President Marc Morial, NAACP President Ben Jealous, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice President Kerry Kennedy.

The convention concluded with a major announcement by Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and President of NAN, regarding action plans formulated during the convention.

NAN will start an “Alert Watch” since the Supreme Court is deciding on Affirmative Action and Section 5 of The Voting Rights Act. NAN has issued an alert that will go into action in the event that the Supreme Court overturns either of the these policies. NAN will mobilize activists to urge Congressional action and to put pressure on the academic and corporate community if Affirmative Action is lost.

Other highlights of the national convention included the Measuring the Movement forum on the final day that brought together three generations of civil rights leaders to discuss strategies on what can be done to sustain civil rights and the social justice movement regardless of what the court’s decisions may be. The forum featured civil rights leaders and a review by some of the legends of the civil rights movement regarding the progress made and mistakes made in the fifty years since the “March in Washington.” The Forum included civil rights icons Rev. Joseph Lowery, Juanita Abernathy, Otis Moss, Jr., and Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., among others.